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Those days

I am down with food poisoning since morning. The culprit was a tuna salad sandwich which I bought yesterday and had for breakfast today. I went for work but came home mid way.So this 5 feet eleven inches man weighing a good 85 kilos was felled by a little tuna.I am quite acquainted with the drill by now - nausea, fever (mild this time), stomach cramps. I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. But work beckons.My Mom and brother are coming tomorrow and we are all off to Goa, the land of food on Wednesday. Need to be up by then.The doctor is quite used to the regularity with which I come with my food poisoning woes. I am quite susceptible to fish. She knows that I am a foodie and I wonder whether she takes me seriously. In fact she gave the recipe for pork chops the first time I went to her with my cramps.A woman's cramps could hardly more regular!Anyway went to Candies for a hot chocolate. That's a tradition I have started to follow a visit to the doctor.

Thanks Serendipity. Sorry all for being a cry baby and then going silent. Am fine but have been a bit busy with my mom and brother coming in and then getting ready for Goa. Have lots to write. let me see if I can scribble a bit now. And yes, that and the prawn bafat

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An Instagram inspired blog post
"I love Bengali food and would love to have the recipe of doi begun and dhokar dalna," said Surabhi Sehgal. Surabhi is a food stylist who has recently moved back to India, specifically Pune, from Dubai where she was till recently. I met her at a session on food blogging at the Grand Sheraton, Pune. It was organised by Jayesh Paranjape of Western Routes and Dushyant Bhatia of Eating Culture who had invited me to talk on my experience as a food blogger. In the Q&A session that followed, Surabhi spoke about how she focuses on making day to day Indian food look soulful through her work.

Her request for Bengali recipes was part of an Instagram conversation that we later had. I told her that I have a doi begun recipe on the blog but had never made dhokar dalna myself. Dhokar dalna is a dish which is often served to vegetarians on festive occasions in Kolkata. My mother used to make the latter in Kolkata when I was in school. She would make the …

A close friend of mine has become a dad recently. I am still trying to imagine him as a father and I must say visions of Steve Martin in The Father of the Bride often come to my mind.

However, it will be years before he has to throw out his daughter's boyfriends across the door. Right now he is planning for his daughter's annaprashon. This is a Bengali rice eating ceremony which celebrates a child's first bite of solid food. If memory serves me right then the honour of giving the first bite goes to the child's Mama (maternal uncle) if possible. There are other rituals too. For example the child is offered a lump of clay, a pen and a currency note. What he or she picks up is supposed to indicate the child's future profession (farmer, scholar, business). I must confess that my knowledge of rituals is a bit rusty though. Of course, there is a feast for guests.

My friend wanted my suggestions for the menu for the ceremony which he will hold in Calcutta. I am a strong bel…

Let's start with dessert‘The jackfruit payasam ice cream is based on my childhood memories of temple meals at Mangalore. They served the coconut milk based jackfruit payasam at the end of the meal on the banana leaf on which you had already eaten. So when you scooped up a bit of the payasam with your fingers you also took in a bit of the remnants of sambar, the sabzis, the rice, the salt, the fried chillies in the same mouthful!’ As I took a bite of the this dessert, which was made with scoops of creamy jackfruit payasam flavoured ice cream (made by the Taj Ice Cream folks who supply the ice creams at the Bombay Vintage Restaurant) and which had candied jackfruit seed chips and jackfruit pickle too, I was teased by flavours of jackfruit, coconut milk, salt, chilli heat, tart... all at one go. There was a reason why this seemingly strange melange made absolute sense to me, as I realised later in the day. This is because it reminded me of my childhood in Kolkata and of wedding meals …